Tactics

Useful skills to achieve are:

• the jig
• the pixel turn
• turning while stunned
• the Houdini
• the clinical kill

The Jig

The jig is a maneuver used to line the snake up with something - such as a pixel gap or a treasure - or to avoid something. It is simply done by pressing the left then right keys in quick succession, thereby moving the snake over one pixel but keeping the same direction.

A jig (in fact - two jigs) - done to 
avoid crashing into some ruins.

The Pixel Turn

The pixel turn allows you to reverse direction in the minimum of space. This is an essential skill in later games, when maneuvering becomes difficult. You do it by pressing the left key twice or the right key twice in very quick succession.

At traditional tournament speeds, even the best players cannot guarantee a pixel turn every time when they are doing them in quick succession.

A pixel turn, used to extract one's snake
when maneuvering space is tight.

Turning While Stunned

If your snake crashes into a wall, it is sometimes a bad move to try and 'crash through'. Instead it may be necessary to turn to escape. You may change the direction of your snake while stunned - but be warned that you may change the direction several times resulting in confusion as to your true direction. This is alleviated by looking at your direction indicator.

Turning while stunned. Here the
player executed a right hand 
turn while the snake was stunned.
This saved the snake from certain
oblivion.

Sometimes it is necessary to shed an extra life when you crash into a wall. That is when there is no way out to the side or ahead. In this case you turn once while stunned, get stunned again, then turn again. The result is that you lose two lives, and leave the crash-site backwards.

Hitting a wall with no way out. So
Turn right, crash again, turn right
and escape.

The Houdini

The Houdini is one of the most difficult, and famous moves possible within CombatSnake. It requires impeccable timing and nerves of steel. When it is used, it is almost always your last chance of survival. The Houdini is used when you have crashed into something. You can't escape backwards with a double turn while stunned, usually because your escape route is blocked. You could escape forwards, but you must do an immediate turn because other perils await.

The Houdini permits egress from such difficult circumstances.

A Houdini saves a life.

The Clinical Kill

Extracting a single life from a competitor is certainly satisfying. However, extracting the life usually leaves them stunned for a precious few seconds. Wouldn't it make sense to try and extra further lives in the process? The clinical kill is the name given to a maneuver designed to extract as many lives as possible from an opponent.

The idea is to wrap yourself around the head of the stunned snake, forcing it to lose more lives against you.

Clinical kill extracting the last two lives.